EXCLUSIVE I got a call from my autistic son's school saying he didn't show up... we found him HOURS later locked in a sweltering bus - he could have died
A severely autistic teenager sparked a frantic search after he failed to turn up at school - only to be found hours later slumped in the back of a bus that should have safely transported him there.
Jimmy Hudson, 13, who is selectively non-verbal, fell into a deep sleep after he was left on the sweltering bus - which had been parked outside the driver's home at the end of his shift - for more than two-and-a-half hours.
His distraught mother Tracy, 45, from Westcliff in Essex, has now lashed out at school transport firm Vecteo, owned by Southend-on-Sea City Council, for their 'negligence' and said an apology was not enough.
'A sorry doesn't cut it if my son was lying in a morgue,' she told MailOnline, adding Jimmy was physically unharmed but has been left emotionally traumatised by the distressing incident last Monday.
Recalling the events of that morning, Tracy said she had escorted Jimmy - the first of 13 children picked up each day - onto the Vecteo bus as it made its way towards St Nicholas School in Southend.
Aside from the bus driver, the vehicles always carry two personal assistants (PA) to help the youngsters.
Tracy believed all was well, but around 10am she received a call from the school informing her Jimmy had never arrived.
'What is supposed to happen is that the children are led off the bus by the PAs and taken to a little alleyway that runs down the side of our school. It's completely safe and there's CCTV.
Jimmy, who is selectively non-verbal, fell into a deep sleep after he was left on the sweltering bus - which had been parked outside the driver's home at the end of his shift - for more than two-and-a-half hours
'The teachers stand a bit further down in that alleyway waiting for the children to arrive.
'But hours after Jimmy left home, the school rang me to ask where he was because they could not find him.
'My first instinct was that something was not right.'
At first, the school believed the teenager might be hiding somewhere on the premises and told Tracy they would conduct a thorough search.
When they failed to find Jimmy, staff looked through security footage, but could not see him entering the school grounds.
By this point, Tracy had made her way over to the school, which had also now involved Essex Police.
Vecteo was contacted several times, but according to Tracy she and the school were repeatedly assured by bosses that Jimmy had 'definitely' left the bus.
'There must have been about four calls. Every time they said he definitely got off the bus, we saw him leaving.
'Then one of the PAs changed their story and said they thought he did leave, but they were not quite sure.
'My son is not a flight and fight child. He's not one to escape and doesn't cope in the outside world. He is riddled with anxiety and sensory process and is selective mute, along with his autism.
'The headmistress and me knew this was not him, it was so out of character.
'There were only two solutions - he was still on that bus or somebody had taken him.'
The bus driver was by now asleep at home, but the police officer insisted that Vecteo contact him to search the vehicle.
Outside temperatures that day in Southend were around 23C, but the internal temperature of the locked vehicle would have been significantly higher.
'The driver told me after that when he went back onto the bus, he could see a black coat at the back of the vehicle. He looked down and all he could see was a pair of legs.
'The driver then said four times to Jimmy, "you need to wake up" and every time he got louder, but there was still no response.
'He told me that he panicked, that he'd never felt fear like it because Jimmy didn't respond - and he didn't know what he was going to see underneath that coat.'
Fortunately, the teenager did not suffer any physical repercussions, but Tracy said he is still processing the incident and has been emotionally harmed.
'Just this afternoon he's come home from school and said "they could have killed me, couldn't they?" And I told him yes, they could.
'You wouldn't keep an animal in a car, so why on earth is it okay for a child to be locked on a bus?'
The shocking incident is the latest in a raft of complaints previously levelled at the transport company, which began in 2021 as a joint venture between London Hire Community Services and Southend-on-Sea City Council.
These complaints were the subject of a council motion as well as a petition in 2021 calling on the council to stop using Vecteo.
The petition attracted more than 1,000 signatures after service users alleged there were 'serious safeguarding concerns'.
These included children and vulnerable adults being left on the side of the road, parents waiting hours for collection - and in one case, a child who was 'blue on arrival home' after they had an epileptic fit while on the bus.
MailOnline was also told by a Southend-On-Sea City councillor of another distressing incident in which Vecteo employees attempted to deliver a child to the wrong home address.
Former Conservative councillor Tony Cox, who now serves as deputy mayor and leader of the Southend Reform UK Group for West Shoebury told MailOnline that while the service level provided by the firm has since improved, scores of residents had continued to flag 'colossal safeguarding issues' against Vecteo.
'There's been a catalogue of these incidents over the last four years and it's just not acceptable.
'I cannot for the life of me understand how something like this could have happened - and then to even tell the parent their child has been offloaded and dropped at school, when that's not the truth.
'I do think there should be a serious probe into what happened here.
'It's just a miracle nobody has been killed.'
MailOnline understands that Vecteo and Southend-on-Sea City Council have launched an internal investigation into this latest incident.
A Vecteo spokesperson said: 'The safety and wellbeing of all children in our care, particularly those who are more vulnerable, is always our highest priority.
'We take this extremely seriously and are working with Southend-on-Sea City Council to urgently investigate these matters to ensure this cannot happen again.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
31 minutes ago
- The Independent
‘I don't know if I'm going to feel normal again' Child Q says over strip search
A black woman who was strip-searched by two Metropolitan Police officers after being wrongly suspected of carrying cannabis when she was a schoolgirl said she does not know if she is 'going to feel normal again'. The woman, known as Child Q, was 15 years old and on her period when she was searched at school by officers in Hackney, east London on in December 3 2020 On Thursday, a disciplinary panel found Pc Kristina Linge and Pc Rafal Szmydynski had committed gross misconduct during the 'disproportionate' and 'humiliating' incident, and the officers were dismissed from the force without notice. The 'traumatic' search involved the removal of Child Q's clothing, including her underwear, her bending over and having to expose intimate parts of her body, the police disciplinary panel heard. In a family statement released by Bhatt Murphy Solicitors after the hearing, Child Q said: 'Someone walked into the school, where I was supposed to feel safe, took me away from the people who were supposed to protect me and stripped me naked, while on my period. 'I can't go a single day without wanting to scream, shout, cry or just give up. 'I don't know if I'm going to feel normal again. But I do know this can't happen to anyone, ever again.' Child Q's mother said the Metropolitan Police has a 'huge amount' of work to do if they are to win back the confidence of black Londoners. In the statement, she said: 'Professionals wrongly treated my daughter as an adult and as a criminal, and she is a changed person as a result. 'Was it because of her skin? Her hair? Why her? 'After waiting more than four years I have come every day to the gross misconduct hearing for answers, and although I am relieved that two of the officers have been fired, I believe that the Metropolitan Police still has a huge amount of work to do if they are to win back the confidence of black Londoners.' The tribunal heard authorisation was not sought for the intimate search, which left Child Q feeling 'demeaned' and 'physically violated'. An appropriate adult was not present, a key safeguard of a child's rights, and the girl's mother was not told of the situation. A third officer – Pc Victoria Wray – was given a final written warning after her involvement on the day was found to amount to misconduct. She was a 24-year-old probationary officer at the time and arrived at the scene after the key decisions had been made. Panel chairman Commander Jason Prins said: 'There has been enormous harm to Child Q and significant harm to the community in trusting the police.' Earlier he had described the incident as 'a disastrous and negative interaction' between police and a black teenager, but said race had not been the reason why Child Q was treated so badly. The search was 'disproportionate, inappropriate and unnecessary', and it was 'humiliating' for the child and made her feel 'degraded'. Commander Prins said 'this is a case where officers adopted a simplistic approach' to a sensitive matter and they did not follow the training they were given. Authorisation was not sought and the situation 'cried out for advice and input', he added. Child Q did not give evidence at the four-week hearing 'because of the psychological effects that this strip search has had on her', the panel heard. Outrage over Child Q's treatment led to protests outside Stoke Newington police station in north London, after a safeguarding review found she had arrived at school for a mock exam and was taken to the medical room to be strip-searched while teachers remained outside. After the misconduct panel finding, Amanda Rowe, director of the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), which brought the case, said of the officers: 'Their decision to strip-search a 15-year-old at school on suspicion of a small amount of cannabis was completely disproportionate. 'They failed to follow the policies that exist to ensure that children in these situations have appropriate protective measures in place.' Teachers had already searched Child Q's blazer, shoes and school bag, and no drugs were found. The school's safeguarding deputy had called police, amid fears Child Q could have been carrying drugs for someone, being exploited or groomed in the community, which meant it was a safeguarding issue for her and other school pupils. Pc Szmydynski took a 'leading role' in the actions that day, including calling for a second female officer to attend, in line with a more intimate search taking place. Pc Linge told Child Q she would be arrested if she did not consent to being searched. Pc Szmydynski was 39 and had more than 13 years policing experience at the time of the search, after becoming a police community support officer in 2007 and a constable in November 2014. Pc Linge was 41 and had joined the force in August 2018. Child Q told Pcs Linge and Wray, who searched her, that she was menstruating, but the search continued, during which her sanitary pad was exposed. When no drugs were found after the strip search, Child Q's hair was also scoured. With no adult present, the teenager was alone and had no help during her conversations with police, or when the decision was made to perform a strip search. No consideration was given as to whether the search could have been moved to Child Q's home, a police station or if it needed to happen at all, according to Commander Prins. It was suggested the police felt the safeguarding deputy, who had accepted in her evidence to feeling 'Child Q was stoned', was acting as the appropriate adult. But Commander Prins added: 'Child Q's mother was a strong choice to be an appropriate adult and, equally, a member of staff who had not been involved in the incident.' The hearing was also told that Metropolitan Police officers get no further updates on stop and search after initial training, and the training on conducting searches in schools was described as 'insufficient'. After the hearing, Metropolitan Police Commander Kevin Southworth told the PA news agency: 'I think we should start by offering our sincerest and deepest apologies again to Child Q for what happened that day and also to her family, her friends, the community, and everyone affected by this terrible incident. 'We understand the distress it must've caused within the community and on Child Q herself and hopefully we can reassure people that we've transformed our approach to stop and search since this time in order to make sure that something like this never happens again.' He had also said: 'While the officers involved did not act correctly, we acknowledge there were organisational failings. 'Training to our officers around strip-search and the type of search carried out on Child Q was inadequate, and our oversight of the power was also severely lacking. 'This left officers, often young in service or junior in rank, making difficult decisions in complex situations with little information, support, or clear resources to help their decision-making.'
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
DAVID DAVIS: Which side is Labour on - the troops who defended this nation in Northern Ireland, or those who tried to destroy it?
British troops went to Northern Ireland to save lives. Today, prosecutors pursue them for doing just that. To understand how we reached this appalling state of affairs, we must return to the beginning. In 1969 the British Army deployed to Northern Ireland not as an occupying force but as a peacekeeping one. Their mission was to shield the Catholic community from loyalist mobs amid spiralling sectarian violence. The IRA and their supporters are now trying to cynically rewrite that basic truth. The early years of the Troubles did not feature unrest, but murder. It was Paramilitary killings, as opposed to arrests, which defined the conflict: take the Warrenpoint ambush in 1979, where 18 British soldiers were killed and over 20 more were wounded by IRA bombs. But the IRA's campaign was not just against soldiers: its terrorists slaughtered innocent civilians, too. In Omagh in 1998, a bomb planted by the so-called Real IRA killed 29 and injured 200. These were not military operations. They were cowardly attacks on the defenceless. And yet, astonishingly, those who perpetrated such atrocities now recast themselves as victims. The IRA peddles a grotesque inversion of the truth, downplaying the scale of its crimes, while promoting a narrative of 'state abuses' designed to paint terrorists as martyrs and soldiers as villains. The Troubles killed more than 3,500 people, and injured more than 50,000. Republican and Loyalist paramilitaries caused roughly 90 per cent of the deaths. In stark contrast, British soldiers operated under the strict constraints of Operation Banner, bound by the 'yellow card' rules of engagement, which required restraint, warnings and proportionality. Time and time again, we see examples of the British military displaying courageous restraint in their confrontations with the IRA. One such case is that of Captain Herbert Westmacott, an SAS officer who was killed in an IRA ambush. Having witnessed their commanding officer brutally gunned down, his patrol entered the house from which the terrorist had fired the shots that killed him – not to exact revenge, but to detain the gunman. These troops chose justice over vengeance. Meanwhile, 1,400 soldiers and police officers died, while the Army killed only 300 IRA terrorists: a stark indicator of the lethal, asymmetric war they faced. Our troops served with discipline and honour in near-impossible conditions. And the facts bear this out: more Catholics were killed by the IRA than by any other group during the Troubles. So much for their claims to be liberators. Which brings me to the Clonoe incident, now the subject of a politically loaded inquest. Readers may already be aware of some of the facts. In February 1992, Special Branch learnt that an IRA team, armed with a Soviet DShK ('Dushka') heavy machine gun, would attack the Coalisland police station. The intelligence indicated that the attack would be mounted from the Clonoe chapel car park, so the SAS commander's plan was to close in on the IRA operatives and arrest them there as they mounted the heavy machine gun on to their stolen lorry. At 7.40pm on that dark February night, 12 members of the SAS were in position on the boundary of the car park, behind the hedgerow. However, the intelligence briefing was wrong. Instead, at around 10.40pm, the DShK was used to attack the Coalisland police station. Sixty rounds were fired at close range from the DShK. The attackers' intent was clear: to kill police officers. The gunfire could clearly be heard, and the tracer bullets were observed by the SAS patrol. After a minute or two, the soldiers heard another burst of gunfire. They did not know that this was in fact IRA terrorists firing their guns in the air as a tribute to Tony Doris, another IRA man who had been killed in a firefight the previous year. For all they and their commander knew, hiding behind their hedge, the murder gang were engaging other soldiers or other policemen. Within a minute, the lorry appeared out of the darkness, driven at breakneck speed, lurching around corners and with its engine screaming in too low a gear. As it drove into the car park, headlights illuminated the SAS position behind the hedgerow. At that point, the soldiers did not know whether they had been spotted. Fearing they were about to be attacked, the soldiers stood up, advanced on the occupants of the lorry and the three other vehicles in the car park, and opened fire. Four IRA members were shot dead, one was wounded, arrested at the scene and, notably, given first aid by the soldiers, while others fled in the three cars. Like all counter-terrorism actions at the time, the operation was reviewed by the Director of Public Prosecutions and all soldiers involved were found to have behaved entirely properly. Now we fast forward to February 2025, when Mr Justice Michael Humphreys ruled that the use of lethal force by the SAS in this incident was unlawful. The ruling is demonstrably wrong and ignores the facts. I find it hard to imagine a more clear-cut situation that would allow firing without challenge. Clonoe is just one incident in which elderly veterans are being persecuted, there will be many more. Terrorists killed 722 British soldiers during the Troubles. Not one of those murders has led to a retrospective inquest, let alone a prosecution. But today, we witness a legal crusade against the men who risked everything in the service of peace. This is not justice. While the killers walk free, authorities hound the men who stopped them, like criminals. The Legacy Act, which created a new body known as the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) to take over all Troubles-era cases, was designed to put an end to this travesty. But the Government's dithering response has handed the initiative back to those who spent decades glorifying violence. Labour must decide whose side it is on: the defenders of this nation, or those who tried to destroy it? Our veterans, many now in their seventies, deserve peace in retirement, not a knock on the door and questions about a firefight in a chapel car park three decades ago, in which they were operating well within the law. Brave soldiers who served their country with honour, heroism and skill during the Troubles now have the Sword of Damocles hanging over them. I have repeatedly asked the Government to end this shameful campaign of retrospective justice. I have received no meaningful answer. That is why I support the petition calling for an end to these prosecutions – and the Mail's important new campaign, Stop the SAS Betrayal, to seek new legal safeguards for our troops. The petition has now passed 100,000 signatures, triggering a debate in Parliament. But that is just the start. This is not just massively important to our veterans. If this rewriting of history succeeds, this weapon of lawfare can be used against soldiers in any future conflict, destroying the efficacy of our troops when we need them most. The Rt Hon Sir David Davis is MP for Goole and Pocklington.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Post Office criminal trials may not start until 2028, says police chief
Criminal trials over the Post Office Horizon IT scandal may not start until 2028, the police officer leading the investigation has told the BBC."The teams need to be really meticulous and [pay] attention to detail, but actually we are making some real progress," Met Cdr Stephen Clayman investigation has identified seven suspects, and has 45 to 50 potential suspects in view. But it will not hand files to prosecutors until after the final report from the public inquiry into the scandal is published, expected later this sub-postmaster Tim Brentnall said victims were "desperate to see some kind of accountability", but added the police should "do it properly". The Horizon IT system, which began operating in 1999, falsely created shortfalls in Post Office branches for which sub-postmasters were held liable. More than 900 people were prosecuted, and some went to prison. Some died while waiting for year a law was passed to overturn those convictions en masse. The criminal investigation into the scandal, Operation Olympos, began in 2020, and interviewed two suspects in scaled up activity after the public phase of the inquiry concluded in December last year, and another two people were interviewed under caution, where their answers can be used as evidence in court. Both were men in their Clayman said the police started with "those at the front line – the Post Office investigators, solicitors, those who were involved in the immediate decision-making".But he added: "We are beginning to scope looking at wider management. That will happen, and is happening, it will just take time to get there."He is confident there will be criminal trials, but admits that the first ones may not start until chair of the public inquiry, Sir Wyn Williams, will publish Volume 1 of his final report on 8 July and is expected to file Volume 2 later this year. Then the police will have to go through it "meticulously", hand files to the Crown Prosecution Service, and wait for a court date, said Cdr Clayman."This isn't uncommon," he said. "Other large investigations linked to a public inquiry have exactly the same thing. And I really do understand the frustration for those who are at the centre of this, who are the victims." Former sub-postmaster Tim Brentnall from Roch, Pembrokeshire, was prosecuted in 2010 when a £22,500 shortfall was discovered at his branch. His conviction was overturned in 2021. "The way the Post Office prosecuted me was completely and wholly wrong, [I was] rushed in front of the courts like a rabbit in the headlights and told I was the only one in this position when I wasn't," he said."But if the police have to take their time, they should take their time and do it properly."David Enright, a lawyer whose firm Howe and Co represented seven out of the 10 sub-postmasters who took part in the inquiry, said: "The fact is we have seen sub-postmaster after sub-postmaster die without ever seeing any true accountability. The question sub-postmasters ask themselves is: where is the urgency at the heart of the police investigation?"There are 108 officers working on Olympos, based in four regional hubs. Cdr Clayman was speaking at the Metropolitan Police's hub near the top of a high-rise police office block in Sutton, South officers spend much of their days trawling through the millions of digitised documents which will make up much of the evidence in the cases. They began with 1.5 million, and that is set to rise to six million as more documents come to force in England and Wales are involved, as are the PSNI and Police Clayman had earlier been critical of the Post Office for not handing information over fast enough, but said they were now being "quite good". Fujitsu, he said, were being "very co-operative".A Post Office spokesperson said: "The Post Office has co-operated fully and openly with the Metropolitan Police since early 2020 to provide whatever information it needs for its investigations, and we continue to do so."
